Tattered Friendship
by Karia Ithilai
Summary: Gon and Killua recieve letters informing of their father's deaths on the same day. Yet when Killua digs deeper, he comes across a century old conspiracy that involves him and Gon. What will he do...rather, what can be done? KilluaGon FRIENDSHIP


DISCLAIMER: Wish I owned them, but I don't. Wait a second…KILLUA'S MINE! STAY OFF! GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! hugs a very embarrassed Killua while fending off other rabid fangirls…joking)

THIS IS MY VERY FIRST FIC! ENJOY!

**To Break and To Mend**

Killua would not believe it. He could not believe it. It was impossible, completely incomprehensible. There was no way, yet in his had, he held the proof –a letter and a will–

From his deceased Father

In the middle of the NGL war against the Chimera Ants, he had just retired from the front line when the letter came. Father was dead, and the letter had been hand written by Mother, complete with her tearstains. He was the official heir to the Zoldick family, but he was not ready for this kind of succession. He never considered it a possibility.

Killua threw open his tent flap and strode out, his eyes clouded by unshed tears. Assassins do not cry, and this was not the time to weaken. He needed to find Gon for any sign of comfort or consolation. Surely, his ever-energetic friend could find a way to cheer him up. Killua walked across the encampment, not heeding several fellow Hunters' salute to their senior officer, young as he may be. Killua had never cared for ranks or attention.

He took the letter out of his pocket again, and tried to finish reading it. He had only read the first few lines, but could not find the heart to continue.

_My Dearest Killua,_

_I cannot see how to say this, but your father…your father has left us forever. He received a very dangerous mission, and he, he never came back. His mission was to kill a man named-_

That was about as far as Killua could go before the tears would have broken out. His father, one of the only people in his family who could understand him had died on some kind of mission. It was impossible to think that a Zoldick could die on a mission, but it had happened.

Killua approached the tent that Gon was currently in residence. However, the usual light atmosphere had dissipated, and Gon was staying shut up in his tent with the flap closed down tightly, as if he did not want visitors. Killua could not see the usual candle flame inside, and would have doubted that Gon was there at all except for the usual pair of boots by the doorway that showed Gon was home.

Killua flicked the tent flap, and asked, "Gon? It's me, Killua. Can I come in?"

He did not hear his friend's usually cheery voice respond. Killua shrugged and made sure he did not have tears in his eyes anymore. He stepped inside the tent, allowing his eyes to adjust to the darkness.

Gon was sitting in a corner, wrapped up in a blanket and shuddering. He clutched a piece of tattered and yellowed paper tightly in his hand, but was still quick to recognize Killua as he came in.

Gon's face brightened a little, but soon fell back into its morose expression. This was very uncharacteristic, causing Killua to abandon his worries for himself in concern for his best friend.

Killua drew closer, and asked in a worried tone, "Gon? What is wrong? Are you sick or something?"

Gon shook his head, and seemed to swallow. His eyes were wet with tears. "Here Killua, read this."

Killua took the tattered piece of paper and read it to himself. He almost cried in disbelief. It was written in a trembling hand, just like his letter, and

_Dear Gon,_

_This is hard to say, but I think you have the right to know. They found your father. He is currently at my house. However…there is something, you should know._

_He was fatally wounded, and there is high risk of death. We do not know what happened, but he was able to speak a few words before he fainted. They were, "Gon…Don't…Killua…Fathers…Friends…No" and that was all. We cannot understand it at all. He died last night. We want you to come back as soon as the war is over and I will explain everything. Gon, you still have me and I love you. Remember that, okay?_

_Gon, I know you cannot come back from the battlefield where your duty lies, but I think you deserve to know. You deserve to know and I trust in you to bear it. Your father would be proud if he could see you now. I am proud of you too. I just want you to know this. Do not ever consider revenge, it will only bring more pain._

_Tell Killua I send my greetings and love._

_-Mito – san_

Killua stared frostily at this paper. Gon looked intently into Killua's face, and found, to his surprise, his friend's expression was now a forced, wry smile. Killua looked up, and Gon saw the tears that flowed down his friends cheeks. Killua lifted his head back and laughed, even while he was crying tears of grief. For a moment, Gon thought Killua had gone insane.

Killua, still laughing with his eyes totally out of focus, obviously did not register whatever he was seeing, tottered backward, and regained his balance. His walked over to Gon and took out his letter as well.

Gon heard Killua's voice, stretched from concealing grief, "How ironic. I never expected such a dumb coincidence. Fate really sucks…"

Gon tilted his head at a puzzled angle, grief temporarily forgotten through the strange behavior of his best friend. "K –Killua, are you alright?"

Killua nodded, took a breath, and said, "It really is ironic. I just got a letter saying my old man's dead too."

Gon nodded knowingly before he fully understood what Killua meant. Then he almost cried out in shock. "WHAT?"

Killua nodded, still smiling in the odd way he had been before. "Fate really sucks, doesn't it? I hope you don't want this letter anymore."

Killua held out the letter up to his face, and then crumpled it into a small paper wad.

"Fate really sucks."

With that, Killua got up, composure regained, and strode out of Gon's tent without saying goodbye to his friend.

The crumpled letter was still in his hand, and he was clenching it so hard that his nails were making his palm bleed.

-

"WATCH OUT!" A huge ball of nen whizzed towards Gon, who was a little distracted. He looked up, surprised, and then sprang haphazardly to the side, barely allowing the missile to blast a crater into the rock behind him.

The battlefield between the Hunters and Chimera Ants was not a good place to be daydreaming.

Killua sprinted over to Gon's side. Helping Gon up, Killua scolded. "Gon, BAKA! If you got yourself killed, what would I do?"

Another ball of nen whizzed past them. Killua yanked both of them out of the way. Gon was reacting far too slowly, but there was a good reason. You would too if you had just found out your father had died yesterday.

A Chimera Ant advanced upon them. By the looks of it, it was ranked a colonel or lieutenant. That was not a problem. Killua left Gon's side for a moment and ran it through before it even knew it was dead. The mess collapsed, making another lump of dead ant, like the many corpses that dotted the battleground.

However, Killua realized that there must have been a reason it advanced on its own. Just as he turned around to go back to Gon, a HUGE ant burst out of the ground in front of him. It had six claws, all dripping in some unknown poison. There were huge, beetle like wings on its back, providing amour and flight at the same time. Two thick legs supported its weight, which must have been immense according to the depth of footprints it left. It lunged at Killua, who was shortly in shock.

Killua dodged the best he could, but avoiding six claws all flying unpredictably at the speed of bullets at the same time was not quite so easy. Just as he dodged his eighth time, he found himself dodging into another limb of the huge ant.

In the background, he could hear Gon's voice shouting, "Assistance. Sergeant Killua and Gon, calling for assistance. A large number of enemies have appeared in section three, battlefield B. PLEASE HELP, PEOPLE!" Even in dire situations, he did not forget to ask politely.

Killua found a claw buried in his left shoulder. In fact, it had gone straight through. The blow had been originally aimed at his heart, but he dodged it partially. The wound was bleeding profusely.

The insect smiled. "You're dead kid. There's no antidote to my poison. Sucks to be you."

Killua reached up and grabbed the claw, yanking it right out. He channeled his nen at about 10 into the unfortunate insect. That was equivalent to a hundred thousand volts of electricity, which insects are not built to withstand.

"Unfortunately, poisons don't affect me. There is no antidote to lightning either." Killua smirked at the fried bug crumpled at his feet. An antenna twitched. Killua made his nails sharper and promptly shredded the insect's head. It was a messy bit of work, but the ant had practically ruined his left shoulder for a week or two.

Killua looked up and noticed the mass of ants crowded around him. "Great. Now I get to fight off twenty ants with one arm alone."

A voice came from behind him. "Not alone. I'm still here!" Gon's voice was normal once more, and his smile was present again. Battlefields made you forget grievances for the time being. Now, to keep their minds off their family troubles, Killua and Gon threw themselves into the enemies with a new vigor. Ant limbs and blood flew everywhere.

"ROCK!" a miniature explosion flew up from where Gon had been standing, proving at least one ant had met its end.

Meanwhile, streaks of blue lightning were shooting from nowhere, frying whatever unfortunate ant had been standing there.

Gon was actually enjoying killing for once. Since the ants were completely mindless after the King had manipulated their brains to fight only, he would not have qualms about killing them…

Five minutes later, the help arrived. They only found two boys standing in the midst of the blood and gore, laughing and talking to each other as if nothing had happened. The two young boys had beheaded, fried ants to a crisp, or pulverized all the ants in sight.

Gon and Killua were sitting amidst the corpses arguing who had killed more ants, even though it was impossible to tell. It was almost as if they were normal kids talking about how many normal ants they had squished, only those ants had been very _abnormal_.

The leader of the help unit shuddered. He turned to his men and said, "And that, my friends, is exactly why they're professional Hunters and we're not."

-

"This is one of those times I'm actually thankful for all the torture resistance training my family put me through." a kid wearing a purple sleeveless shirt and had _white_ hair smiled as the nurse bound up his shoulder. The nurse was rather scared to be dealing with someone who massacred over thirty Chimera ants with only one arm. Even more frightening was that this kid was no more than twelve and had his shoulder completely impaled on a claw dripping with acidic poison, and he was SMILING! He must have had a horrible life at home.

"Here you are, young man. The shoulder should be fine in a month or two. Stay here in this hospital room until then."

The white-haired kid smirked at her. "The shoulder will be better in a week. You will not make me miss a day of battle if I don't want to, and I don't."

With that, he disappeared, leaving a bewildered nurse behind him. Somehow, the kid had run up the wall, across the ceiling, to the window, and leapt out of the fourth story window in the blink of an eye. That did not include the fact that he landed on his feet and ran directly to a spiky, black haired kid who seemed to be waiting for him down below.

The nurse shook her head. "Kids these days are too…Well, that is why they are professional hunters and I'm not."

The two boys below headed straight in the direction of the battlefield.

-

At the battlefield, something was not right. Actually, many things were not right. That was because fresh enemies had appeared.

The King and his elite guard had arrived with 200 more Chimera ants, and only 150 Hunters were currently on the scene.

-

Author's Corner:

This is my very first fic, so please RR! (we writers live on that stuff)

If you find any serious spelling errors, please…RR!

So send in those REVIEWS! (constructive criticism and flames accepted, but I like compliments o )


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